Week 5 - Developing Bobo and looking at Colors

The sketches I have done of Sofie during the weekend. For some weird reason I can't log into the Group Blog. I will ask the group today if anyone else is having problems, maybe we have to change the password. Josie liked nr 1, Wan, me an dPatrick likes version 3, Me, Wan and Raphael also really likes version 4 but everyone wanted to see her with the other hairstyles.

I checked the animatic that Patrick sent me. I can see now that we need to explan and show more in Scene 3, Patricks and my scene. That scene shouldn't be to dramatic but we have to establish that she doesn't want to be in that world, that it is painful and we have to establish the goog bye and " its time to let go" moment with her mother. I don't think we are doing that good enough right now. Scene 4 is still going a bt to fast I think, what happened with this girls journey and where are the creatures that she can see in the new world of the dead? Tomorrow we will have a meeting and then everyone will have a look at the animatic so that we hopefully can get the real storyboard and anmatic developed within 1- weeks, I don't want to rush it, it is bloody important and it's hard. I am a bit stressed and worried but I feel that eveyrone started working harder last week so hopefully we will be okej. If not, then I guess I will stop working on so many films and focus on my own. It's just that I really enjoy concept work and we are doing all that stuff this term so that's why I am really busy right now.



I have done some color research but have to discuss what we are going for with the group on our Monday meeting. We all like and decided to go for wamr and tone down colors and use a lot of grey as in the "I lived on The Moon" musicvideo. But I think I want to intergrate more warm colors as orange into the dead world to more clearly with the help of color establish that this is the world that the girl wants to be in. Lighting will be very important, cold and sterile in the hospital and soft and warm in the Deadworld.











Almost everyone was an hour late to the Monday meeting. I don't want any more of that, it pisses me off as we have shit loads to do. Okej if a train is late but otherwise everyone knows we start at 10 and I do think that we all should take our last college year seriously. I think that Joise and I have been bad producers so far, we are behind so we are doing something wrong but we really try to inform everyone about everything thats happening and making sure that each one of us know what we are expected to do every week. Mike said the thing, " I need to see more amount of work". And thats exactly what it is! If you are gonna work on the trainstation, the girl, Bobo, the hospital room etc - I wanna see more then 1-2 sketches, I wanna see research. Oh my God, if I had only done 1-2 girls per week then we would never ever finish!
So I am gonna ask all concept artists to NOT bring 1 or 2 sketches ( but i think I already did on the Group Blog ?) but atleast 5-10. I am worried and stressed about the pace we are working in. So Josie and I have to be tuffer from now on. Otherwise there will not be a film cos this is the most important term, this is where we set the foundation of this film.
Was I stuoid when I was democratic and let everyone had a say about this film? Should I have sticked with the octopuss idea?
I think 6 brains should be better then one so we will stick with the train, but offcourse, in my head I see the girl swinnimg with a octopuss.

Jono hasn't replied for days now so I am not going to priorities working for his film right now, I need fedback and I need to know what's going on first.

Monday evning and I am trying different hairstyles and colors on the 2 girl designs that everyone liked:








Tuesday. I have posted a wake up call on the Group Blog, cos we are getting more and more behind. I will talk to Josie as well, we have to be much tuffer producers from now on. I also e-mailed everyone and asled them once again to start using the Blog and to give the rest of us fedback so that we dont always have to wait for the next meeting to get everyone's opinions but can make changes before and speed things up. If they don't start using it, I will pick the final designs.
We don't have much time now.



I am pushing everyone about the animatic and is trying to develop it and the storyboard further, I find it really hard to think within frames but I am slowly starting now. I watch so much film but I never really think about the angles and the camera moves etc.. I had an idea of shooting from inside the train and seing a creature sitting on the back seat, watching out through the window where we can see bobo and sofi running trying to catch the train and maybe zoom in on them a bit. The people in my group liked the idea, Raphael took a look at western films as we didnt like those old shots, so we took a typical front western film shot from the wild west and added to our film :) I am re drawing stuff and e-mailing to Patrick so that he can make the final animatic. Here are some of the shots/scenes that I have done so far.







well, this is Sofie now. Can't waith for the rest of the group to vote. I begged them a week ago to start leaving fedback on the blog so.. During the weekend I will make hers and Bobo's modelsheets.






Thursday and I am staying home today, had migrane last nite and my head is still no back in order, my eyes are a bit funny right now as well so I can't sketch or draw today, will get back to bed. I did the colorschemes though and updated the group Blog. Talked to Josie the other day, we are appearantly doing something wrong as producers as we are a large group but so behind. I told her tat we have to make sure we give fedback to everyones research and sketches cos thats the only way to get some where, I missed that when I put my first six drawings of the girl on the table and no one said anythg and I said " its concept, what features do u like and what don't u like, what should i keep and what should change" and then I gat some fedback. I am slowly learnng how to be a producer, I am good at pushing things forward but I am not good at making all the decisions as I have been wanting to be so democratic and wanting all the people in the group to be a bg part of the film. have realsed now that that is not working. If they don't say anything at the meetings or ar the group blog- then they appearantly don't have a opinion and is fine with it. I am really happy about the people in my group, they are all very nice, laidback and creative, but Josie and I should have told them weeks ago that one or two sketches of something isn't enough work to produce in a week. So, we should take the responsibility for that, learn and get better.

Its friday today and my head and eyes are back in full function but I am stressed about the film. I am really bad on life drawing and I am making the girls modelsheet, maybe not a very good decson but I think I found a short cut. I e-mailed the school where I used to work as a teaching assistant and asked if there's a 7 year old girl in normal size for her age who wants to be our body referance. Cos then my old colleges can take pictures of her and e-mail them to me and my drawings will be less cartoonish :) They haven't replied yet. I did some pigeons for Jess yesterday, and actually, I think two of them has something but my eyes don't work properly after migrane, get really sensitive to light and color.. but if I get the time I wll draw them better and develop them. I am disapointed in Jono for saying that he loves my drawings and wants to see more and then i do and a week later, still no fedback or reply. I could have spent that time on my own film.
I checked the blog yesterday and Wan and Josie are my angels, they are working really hard, thanks to that w emight even have the train design and the hosptal room design on Monday, that would be wicked, then we slowly start catching up.
Now I'm gonna drink coffee and try not to panic :)

Did some new pigeons for Jessica's film.








Like the some of the top ones, but I am not very proud about this ones, drew them on Thursday when my head n eyes still was a bit weird after the migrane. The new ones above are better. But i really enjoyed making them! Wanna do some more.



I hate making model sheets. HATE. I need to do lifedrawing everyday for like 5 years before I can understand and start drawing perspective and realistic. Usch.



peace n luv,
asa

Week 4 - Finaly I have a computer!

Yes, last friday I finaly recieved my brand new iMac - and it is amasing! Now I can start working for real!

The first thing that I decided to do create a new Blog. I know that Mike showe me a journal from last year that he liked but for me that journal was not in depth enough, I couldn't see any of that students developing work, sketches or research. And I do want to write about the entire group work process as well as this is pretty much about good group work - or lack of it.
So I started a new Blog, this one, and its my journal.

My other Blog was my Art work and Illustration Blog and I soon realised that it ended up with only research and Jornals and I don't want people that are interested in my illustration or art work to have read all that and wonder what I am doing.


Ruff Sketches of how the girl, Sofie can look


Monday: The only ones who had done their storyboard scenes for the Monday meeting was me and Eva. Josie had missunderstod but quickly started to draw her scene and fixed it during the meeting and her drawings are great.
Patrick n I decided to do ours together and discussed the scene and agreed that we would like to shoot as much of this scene from above as it would give a feeling of the girl being in a box and being locked up. We also changed the defribilator scene, we decided that that is a bit to dramatic for the pace and the feel of the film. we don't want the girl to die a dramatic death.
But I was really disapointed that not more people from the grup showed up and had done any work as I said so many times the week before that a good storyboard is crucial for a good film and that we need to get started and help eachother with it.
I decided to give everyone a couple of more days and book a new meeting on wednesday and this time e-mail, text, talk AND put up info on the group Blog about it so that everyone will be there.

I have drawn some different sloth faces for Jono so that we can start developing the animals characters for his film. I have e-mailed them all to him and is waiting for fedback cos I don't really know what deadline I have or whats happening as his group live together and talk about everything at home and don't have a group blog or e-mail out any info so, I am just trying to do as much as possible and has asked him to keep me updated so that I know what's going on and know if I have to speed up my work or not.


..trying to figure out how a sloth would look if it walked on two legs...

Researching sloths, apparently they move 4 n a half metre in a minute..


Concept work for Jono's film "Azteek Escape"



I am trying to figure out how they stand up and would move if they actually could walk. I understand now why Ice Age used a sloth kind that doesn't even exist any more but - it could walk! So I am trying to merge their feet and body with the kind of sloth that Jono likes.



I e-mailed everything to Jono and asked if we could met up on Thursday and Friday and go through them all. Done some quick sketches and changes on the opossum.




Wednesday: Storyboard meeting and everyone was there!! Jippi! Now it feels as if we finaly can get started for real, I explained to everyone that no one who dislikes drawing has to draw but everyone has to come to the meetings as everyones thoughts and ideas are important and will make it a better film. This film has so much pssoibilities and could be something really extraodrinary, it is up to us as a group. Josie and I have worked our asses off on The Girl and the Bobo design and I have asked Becca and Aminata to help out as well as I feel that we need to start getting somewhere. And slowly but surely we are.
I asked everyone to leave comments about all the sketches on the Blog so that we can continue develop our designs and hoepfully have the girl or Bobo or the train ready by next week. We turned our heads inside out and went through the storyboard and made some changes..then just before we were going to give up for the day Patrick came up with the briliant idea of using ballons in the end scene instead of the train, we all really like the idea but are afraid that it will slow down the film and make it longer. I really dont care as long as the film is good. We couldnt find a good way to explain why they had to catch just this train, but with lots of ballons taking of and just one left, our girl Sofie would have to hurry up and cath the last one and then take off into the light. I love it. I actaully saw a image of baloon over Paris two weeks ago when I was researching art work and liked it so much I wanted to use t some how but didn't feel that it would fit my film, but it actually would but with other colorschems.







Thursday and Friday: Realised while listening to Jareds Production Scheduling lecture that maybe its Josie and my faults as prodcuers that we are behind, maybe we are not clear enough? Josie and I decided to re do the schedule and post it on the Blog and I decided to from now on alwasy write up exactly who's doing what on the Blog and for what date and the date and the time of the next meeting with Block capitols so that no one can get confused or forget what they promised to look into. Wan, Eva,Raphael and Nnamdi joined up with us in the 2nd year room so by accident we had a unplanned meeting and discussed and tried to develop the storyboard some more and told everyne about the changed timetable and the new system, everyone said that they iked it and that it made it easier for them fast to see whats going on so thats good! And I was really glad that everyone that was in just joined us and came to see what was going on, everyone in my group really seem to want to make this film which makes me really happy. I have asked for exapmles of music but everyone had forgatten and I havent managed to find anything, but Christina played piano on a film I did in my foundation year so I will go to her house with the animatic when it is done so that she can play and adept the music to it. Patrick and I started putting the storyboard scenes together in photoshop, a lot of them wasn't nmbered so I was about to go crazy and it took much longer time then we planned. Patrick said that he could do the animatic at home and that he enjoys playing around with After Effects so I thanked him for that ( as I hav emore films to work on) and left and headed fo rmy drawing table at home!

For Jessicas film I have done some 60's interior design research, chosing the 60's was a brilaint idea that will stylise her film and make it really funky as 60's designs are really colorful and fun. I haven't been able to find any London postcards from the 60;s or Posters. The few posters that I could find were in really bad quality, but I will continue looking and see if I can find some 60's cartoons that our Owl teenager can have in his room maybe?

That's all for this week. I am exhausted.

Week 3 - Character Designs!

This week I have focused a lot on working on Character designs for Jessica's film. She liked the idea of mafia inspired pigeons and wanted to inegrate the 60's glasses on the mother owl, so here are some of my sketches on that:


( double click for larger picture )

I did some ruff bat sketches as well haha but I didn't really get any fedback on any of my work so I guessed my drawings where to silly...

he he

.. So then I continued developing and sketching on the little girl for my film and her toy and friend, Bobo instead.


Everyone in the group seemed to really like the funny vintage toy that I posted so I made a quick sketch and now I am trying to develop him further so that we might have our Bobo character soon. Waiting for fedback from the group.









Some Amazon Jungle animal research



For Jono's film I am working on the three jungle animals, he doesn't want any birds or monkeys so I went for sloths and a oppossum. Now this will be a challange! I can't draw animals! I just really like Jono's film idea and think that his jungle animal characters are someting that you can have a ot of fun with, but if I can make them? I will do my best and try, hopefully he doesn't ant a realistic but more cartoonish look. Jono and I sat down on Friday and I was quite sure that he wouldn't like my art work but to my surprise he did, he wanted me to make the sloth more athletic as he has to be ablo to move fast, but he liked the right hand ones face and expression and he also liked my top oppossum and asked me to change the nose, give him bigger ears and feet to make him more cartoonish so I am gonna work on that. I was really surprised and happy about that he liked them, I hope that he is not just being nice. He asked me if I wanted to sketch on the two explorers as well, I would love to do that! But there just isn't enough time. Updating my own film blog and being a producer is taking a lot of time and energy.


I choosed to go for sloths and oppossum as they are really cool animals.




I did a little quick sketch for Ash's film. They can really have fun making the characters of the old woman and the tall skinny old man. This sketch is way to silly, don't know why I did it, guess it was after talking to Ash and he said they didn't have a lot of conceot, well, this is nothing they can use but he was really happy when I gave it to him which made me glad :)
Is it so much more fun to draw for project where you get fedback.



Inspiration, art work that I like for different reasons, colorschemes, light etc for my film.




this one is tacky as hell, baby colors and not very imaginative but maybe it can help us thinking about what NOT to do and get more ideas

Week 2 - Research and getting started!

The 60's! Jessica and her fulltime group decided that their film should take place in the 60's and I love it! Here's some reaserch on clothes, furniture, hairstyles etc from the 60's.





Then, what kind of owl's is there and what kind of Owls is Jessica after?






Some of my Owl Research for Jessica's film "Owl's Day Out" and here are my first sketches,



I thought that the pigeons might be a bit more fun if they were street guys, mafiosos or gangsters..



Started playig around, trying to imagine the mixed media dead world but so fat I see it only as empty 3D space with mist. But I started making some water color textures as I know that Patrick is playing around with that enviroment this week so maybe he wants something to play with?








We all started sketching and working on the girl, Bobo and the girls mother this week as well. I don't want a manga girl, I don't want a cartoonish girl and I don't want a realistic girl, so how do I explan what kind of girl I want? I have searched internet for her but Haven\t managed ti find naything close, this sketch is a girl that I like. She is badly drawn, but I like her sadness and I like that she is not cartoonish, not realistic and not manga. But I didn't get any fedback from my group when I showed the sketch so it didn't seem as if the liked it. Maybe I have to develop it and present it better.


I tried to sketch on the mother and The Doctor as well. It is hard. I draw silly and cartoonish but I still like all the concept work cos this is how we learn and develop, challenge ourselfs.


I asked Nnamdi if he wanted to be the main producer. I told everyone from the begining that the only reason why I am the director, producer and art director right now is because I am not sure that you all share my vision of the film, if you all are ready to work hard etc. It is just because I feel afraid of giving away the film and end up with a complet different film then the one I wanted to do. But I feel that we are very much alike in my group and we all agreed on that this is a sad film with a slow and beatiful pace and we all love the art work that inspired me from the "I lived on The Moon" musicvideo and its colorscheme. Nnamdi said yes, unfortanlly he called me later on two days later and said that he wanted to go and do his own film. I understand if he wants do to his own thing on his BA year, totally. But ofcourse I am sad that he is living as he is a very talented guy, very good on filmic language and script writing, I think this film would suit him and that he would have had fun with it. Will ask him on Monday if he will stay as a part timer or dissapear completly. I really hope that Wan stays so that he doesn't dissapear as well.

Very annoyed about not being able to work at home..will have to sort my computer situation out SOOON!

PS Found this article online that I found interesting!

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Kids near death report surprisingly similar experiences. What can we learn from them?

By Randall Sullivan

When she arrived at the hospital in the spring of 1982, seven-year-old Kristle Merzlock was in a coma after spending 20 minutes at the bottom of a swimming pool. Bill Longhurst, the lanky doctor who received Kristle in A&E, quickly summoned paediatric doctor Melvin Morse, then 27, the only doctor at the hospital who had performed a significant number of resuscitations. But even Morse, with all his experience and outstanding academic credentials—a medical degree and a research fellowship funded by the US National Cancer Institute—was not prepared for what was about to happen.

Kristle’s pupils were fixed and dilated, Morse recalls, and she had no gag reflex. A CT scan showed massive swelling of her brain.
A machine was doing her breathing and her blood pH was extremely acidic, a clear indication of imminent death. “There was little we could do at that point,” Morse says.

So when Kristle survived, emerging from her coma three days later at the hospital in Pocatello, Idaho, with full brain function, Morse was amazed. More extraordinary still, his world view was profoundly altered when Kristle recognised him. “That’s the one with the beard,” she told her mother. “First there was this tall doctor who didn’t have a beard and then he came in.” That was true. Morse sported a beard, while Dr Longhurst was clean-shaven. Kristle then described the casualty ward with astonishing accuracy. “She had the right equipment, the right number of people—everything was just as it had been that day,” Morse explains. She even correctly recited the procedures that had been performed on her. “Even though her eyes had been closed and she had been profoundly comatose during the entire experience, she still ‘saw’ what was going on.”

www.readersdigest.co.uk/ life-after-death-i-71...

peace out
asa
Posted by "The day That I died" Production Blog at 15:20

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Week 1 - My "The Day That I Died" Film

I e-mailed everyone log in information about the Group Blog and asked them to check it atleast two times a week so that they stay updated, made a list with everyone's e-mail adress and mobilepone number as well and sent it out to everyone in the group so that we easily can get in contact with eachother. I asked Josie if she wanted to co-produce with me, I think that Josie would be a great producer as she always stays calm and always hand in work long before deadlines and tehre for most be well organised and, I already know that she is a hardworker. She said yes :)

Everyone gat the link to The Production Blog of "I lived on The Moon" which inspired me a lot. The musicvideo can be downloaded on the Blog and you can read about what inspired Yanim Puig to make it. He really managed to mix 3D and ad in a beatiful way that deson't feel werid at all, the textures and the animation are amasing as well. I have e-mailed Yanim and he replied so I asked him a couple of questions about his film :)





First post on The Group Blog.



I am trying to sketch on the girl and the style of this film but my drawings so far are too cartoonish or too much as a childrens books illustration. I don't want them to be too realistic but at the same time I don't want to take away the fact that this film is about death. As I imagined it, it starts of with the girl in the hospital bed and her voice (no lipsyncing ) saying " Tis is the story about the day that I died. It seemed like any other day. The Doctors had said that I had atleast one more month, but they were wrong". Then I want us to follow her, into her eyes as she closes them and everything turns black, and the black starts to clear out and she gets grabbed by something, its a octopuss, taking her from the deep dark waters up toards the lighter ones where the octopuss lift her upon a cloud and she continues her journey towards "the light". I know that 3D water is pain, but I was imagine it as a lot of particles and light and maybe not using real 3D water but paint and 2D layers..hm. This is not very developed. I have built a octopus in Maya. I gat this idea on the saturday before the film pitch, about following a girl that dies and go a bit more experimental and arty. I had started modelling the Monsters Spa in 3D, I had spent two weeks in my room developing the Monsters..but..then this new idea comes up and I just have a weekend to sketch it down n try to explain what the * I want to do. And offcourse I am thinking that the 3D people in my class will think that I am really weird and that no one will vote for my film - but some people did! I am really exited, this will be hard work but FUN! :)
I presented my idea for the group and everyone liked the octopuss idea BUT we talked about how hard it would be to model, rig and animate as a Octopuss doesn't have a skeleton but muscles. So we decided to change that.


Bobo




Inspiration and research:







..and this is when my lap top and hard drive died..and I lost my 3D octopuss...verdammt.